When you view Frank Young’s outstanding exhibition, SEEN and UNSEEN, on display in our galleries until April 8th, you witness the testament of a solo artist collaborating and making magic with his environment, his muses and his medium. As we gathered on Friday evening to celebrate at Frank’s Opening Reception, the collaborative magic was made by the hands and hearts of many—jazz stylist Tristan Royster, Judy Goff, Heather Goff, Cindy Chilton, Dean Vandergriff, Betsy Flanigan, Jo Ellis, Kelly Heidlage, Gail White, Helen Kunze and Hometown Bank, our collaborating Exhibition Underwriter. To our volunteers “Thank You!” To all the good people of Hometown Bank, a resounding “Thank You!” for your generous financial support which brings SEEN and UNSEEN to artCentral.

As I first asked for Hometown Bank’s underwriting, Lonnie Heckmaster, President of Hometown Bank, gave me an unqualified “Yes!”, and then he asked “What else can we do for you?”

My being new to my position as artCentral’s DirectorCurator and hearing Lonnie Heckmaster’s enthusiastic, positive response reassures me there are many of you out there wanting and ready to help artCentral enrich our community. Please don’t wait for me to ask. Call me (417-358-4404) and enjoy the opportunity to underwrite an Exhibition or join with us as a Business/Corporate member. Your collaborative support keeps artCentral strong and expanding.

Collaborative rhythms were the heartbeat pulsing energy and activity through Hyde House last Saturday with two Free Workshops back to back—Cindy Moore presenting the Art of Blogging in the morning and Tricia Courtney offering the Art of Upcycling for the afternoon. To these fine artists of word and image we offer our deep appreciation for your donation of your time, talent and energy.

Don’t miss our next Free Workshop, The Art of Yoga, an introductory class taught in our Main Galleries by yoga master Holly Royster on Saturday, 28 March at 10 am. Registration: artcentral@artcentralcarthage.org or (417) 358-4404.

For Wednesday, April 8th at 10 am, you’re invited to our 30th Anniversary RETROforward! celebration—our curbside Chamber of Commerce Ribbon Cutting. Join us afterwards in Hyde House for Tricia Coates’s famous cinnamon rolls and tours of our elegant home. While on campus be sure to visit our Great Wall collaborative creation—under the direction of Joplin artist, Andrew Batcheller, assisted by a bevy of artCentral artists, artCentral Kids and artCampers—a superlative collaboration!

During this celebration season, you artCentral Artists have THREE opportunities to strut your best stuff. RETROforward! (Show and Sale) is April 17-26; our ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP EXHIBITION (Awards) is June 12-28; and THE GREENING OF HYDE HOUSE (Show and Sale) is December 1-5 for artist-decorated trees and ornaments.

To get started, register for our FREE WORKSHOP: RETROforward!, Saturday, March 21, 1-5 pm. Tricia Courtney, Joplin artist and Queen of Upcycles, will guide us through transforming old stuff into art. Bring your own materials or dip into Tricia’s treasure chest of found and castoff objects. Call for reservations and a supply list: 417-358-4404.

On Saturday, March 21 at 10 am, in the spirit of RETROforward! another FREE WORKSHOP, artCentral-BLOGGING, taught by Joplin’s internationally popular blogger, Cindy Moore, is designed to get you 21st century-current in the art of communication. Based on her success building and maintaining her own blog, Cindy will share tips and how-tos for setting up your blog and engaging with your followers. Bring your laptop or just sit in. Reservations: 417-358-4404.

Mark these Exhibition and Workshop dates and get your art ready to show and sell! artCentral gives the most generous, artist-friendly percentage of any area venue. Take advantage of all these RETROforward! opportunities to practice your art-making, marketing and success.

A master of RETROforward!, Frank Young will present his SEEN and UNSEEN Exhibition, March 20-April 5. Frank first exhibited at artCentral in 2008 with his plein air oil paintings showcasing his fascination with people, environments and situations. This year he returns with an impressive encore, taking these same artistic inspirations and his same signature selective palette, and painting new life and new light, new scenes and new subjects with confidence. The Opening Reception, at 6 pm on Friday, March 20, the first day of spring, will be the perfect beginning for this not-to-be-missed, all new RETROforward! collection.

Many of you have been terrifically supportive of my own RETROforward! choice to take the skills and experiences gathered over a lifetime and pour them and myself into artCentral. While applauding my focus, you express concern that I’m too busy with artCentral to have time for my own art. Well, yes and no. I’m simply moving onto a larger canvas. With pleasure and with you, I’m brushing bold new strokes for artCentral’s future. The satisfactions are exhilarating. Thank you for your encouragement and help. We’re all in this together. Going RETROforward! with artCentral is all good!

Next is a collection of cows. Robust, thick-coated black and ecru they are, a solo chocolate brown adding a note of dissonance. All are heads-down, morning foraging in a tan pasture stretching to the distant tree line. Where the cows now breakfast, giant rolls of green hay were scattered in late autumn. Today these bundles are gathered beside a shed near the road—their neatly ordered line a tidy contrast to the haphazardly arranged bovines.

Seeing these pastorals, I think of two of our artCentral artists, Helen Kunze, who serves on our Board of Directors, and her studio sister, Kristen Huke. They both so skillfully paint hay bales, vast skies, open fields and cows, I want to step into their canvases, lean on a fence, smell the aromas and feel the sunshine on my face. Soon, with Sarah Huntley, they’ll be relocating their Drawn Together Studio from beside the train tracks to just off the square. I’m guessing that even though moving downtown, they’ll still paint countryside and broadly stroked vistas to feed our senses!

Like the triplets of Drawn Together, the sensually twined sycamore branches, grazing cows and gathered bales, the artists of artCentral make a rich tableau of community—a community uniquely woven together by our love of art and acts of creating.

While our artCentral home is a bit of a back road destination, Hyde House is certainly worth the detour. Here in our elegant surroundings we have our gabled Artist Salon and Attic Atelier, the Sally Armstrong Lending Library and our fully equipped Robin Putnam Pottery House. We have spacious galleries for showing our work and the Board Room Boutique for our guests’ shopping. We have workshops and classes. We have artCamp teaching opportunities. We even have our own Great Wall out back, quietly waiting for our reimagining.

If you’re an artist or know one looking for a place to gather with other creatives, we invite you to join artCentral (417-358-4404) as an Artist Member. The benefits are many including recognition in our Newsletters and on our website as an Artist in our community.

Come for these last few days of our PASSION Exhibition in our galleries through this weekend. See what a community of artists can make and then make art with us!